Elan plunges £1.5bn into the red

TROUBLED Dublin-based pharmaceuticals group Elan has revealed one of the biggest losses in Irish corporate history with a spectacular $2.4bn (£1.5bn) fall into the red last year.

Elan, Ireland's biggest quoted company until a year ago, made the loss on revenues of $1.47bn, down 21% after a series of disposals. The company is quoted on the Dublin and New York stock exchanges, although the shares are also traded in London. Its shares collapsed last year after a US newspaper questioned its accounting policies.

The loss came after one-off charges of more than $2.2bn, mainly linked to write-downs and provisions related to a series of complex off-balance sheet ventures that had triggered the original concerns about its accounts.

The company has launched a disposal programme to generate cash but insists it is not about to be broken up. At the year-end Elan had cash of $1bn.